Jane

All of the recent assaults on the Sturbridge Tea Party see here, here, here and here can be linked to the May 10th election for state rep in the 6th Worcester District.

The election, originally held in November was won by Peter Durant by one vote over Geraldo Alicea. Alicea contested the outcome in court and the judge ordered a new election.

Alicea’s star witness at the hearing was Angel Miranda, who claimed he was not allowed to vote in either Precinct 1, where his name appeared on the voting list, or Precinct 5, where he currently resides.

Judge Tucker ruled that Miranda should have been allowed to vote. His vote would have rendered the election a tie, and thus a new election was scheduled at great cost to the town in a time when it has little money to spare.

The Soutbridge Town Clerk, Madaline I. Daoust, who oversaw the election testified that she did not know Angel Miranda. Daoust is the cousin of the candidate Geraldo Alicea.

Daoust was asked under oath if she knew Angel Miranda and testified that she did not. Three days after her testimony Daoust and her ex-husband, Ronald A. Daoust Jr., sold their four-bedroom Colonial at 5 Poplar St., Southbridge, on Dec. 31, 2010, for $175,000 to Angel L. Miranda of Southbridge.

Daoust claims that she never met Miranda during the course of the sale. That is certainly believable. I’ve sold two houses and met one buyer and not the other. But in both cases I was well aware of who they were, and certainly would have revealed that if asked about it under oath. Daoust thinks otherwise:

In an interview yesterday, Ms. Daoust maintained that she never saw Mr. Miranda until he appeared in court in January, and that she never saw him during the home sale because the transaction was handled by a real estate broker who showed the house. She added that she had not lived in the house for two years and that the sale was ordered as part of a divorce.

“All I did was sign papers,” she said. “I didn’t know him when he showed up in court.”

Ms. Daoust said she did not volunteer that she was selling the property to Mr. Miranda because she was not asked that question directly.

“You don’t offer any information they don’t ask of you. They didn’t ask me that,” she said. “That’s “Court 101.” I’m not hiding anything. I didn’t perjure myself.”

Miranda was not the only abnormality in the election:

Frank L. McNamara Jr., Mr. Durant’s lawyer, said the registrars counted a ballot that appeared to be in Mr. Durant’s favor as a blank, and the Nov. 18 recount results were tainted because a bin in which Mr. Alicea picked up two votes only had one seal on it, when the other four bins had two seals.

These ballots were in the possession of Daoust and the failure to seal the bin properly was her mistake. Durant recently told me he witnessed the broken seal on the bin and called it to Daoust’s attention who declined to do anything about it.

The new election is on May 10th. The left continues to do whatever it can to assure an Alicea win.

The Sturbridge Tea party meets once a month after hours in a conference room of a local bank. For years this bank has allowed organizations in the community to use its conference rooms in off-bank hours. It is generous beyond anyone’s expectation, and typical of the Sturbridge community.

I just got a call from the bank president who indicated that he was getting push back from the press and the Hispanic population and would now have to cancel our use of the room. As the bank president he does not want to look as if he is endorsing any group. And I can hardly blame him.

The room had also been reserved by another tea party group for this Saturday to conduct poll watching training. My guess, is it is that training that has triggered the push back. We have an election scheduled on May 11th for state rep and many people are concerned that because we have no requirement to show an ID, fraud may be rampant. See here for background. The democrat candidate running in the election is a hispanic. It may just be coincidental that the hispanic community has complained that any request for a voter ID is “voter intimidation” and they are also complaining about our using the conference room.

Like the protesters yelling “nazi” at the tea party yesterday, it appears that to many on the left, things like free speech and the right to associate should only be allowed if they agree with the agenda.